UPDATE:Secretary of state records show Ball registered to vote last month.

A Westminster Republican who thinks Joe Coors is too conservative for voters in the 7th Congressional District plans to challenge the brewery heir in the June primary.

Matt Ball, whose campaign kickoff is Saturday at Front Range Community College, said Coors isn’t right for the working-class district.

“He’s too conservative on social issues and I don’t believe the Coors name is going to make up for that,” Ball said.

The winner of the June primary faces U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Golden, who is seeking his fourth term.

State records show that Coors in 2010 donated $1,000 to Amendment 62, which sought constitutional rights for individuals “at the beginning of biological development.” The anti-abortion measure lost by a 3-to-1 margin.

Ball said he supports civil unions and is pro-choice, but the country needs to “get the government out of doctor’s offices and bedrooms.”

WASHINGTON — Rep. Cory Gardner has heard two strong messages from farmers in his 4th Congressional District round tables this week: Extend relief for the estate tax at the end of the year and save the family farm.

Gardner, R-Yuma, has been touring his mostly rural district to talk about the overhaul of the Farm Bill, which both the Senate and the House are tackling this year. (Most observers say the reauthorization is likely in 2013.)

Also on the table is the end of direct subsidy payments for commodity farmers. Gardner said Colorado farmers are mostly OK with getting rid of the payments as long as there is a strong, government-backed safety net in place in case of crisis.

Some of the meetings have been emotional, Gardner says. One high school senior from Otis told him that out of 17 kids who graduated from his school, he was the only one planning to return to his family’s farm.

What does Gardner plan to do to save the family farm, besides working on extending the estate tax relief?

“We have to make sure that agriculture maintains strong market opportunities,” he said. “And we need to make sure that regulatory pressures don’t squeeze farmers out.”

UPDATE – FEB. 23, 9:05 A.M.:This post has been updated to correct information about a bill heard yesterday, including an updated link, and to clarify the time frame in which officials say 416 non-citizens were removed from voter rolls.

With a House committee scheduled to hear a bill today that would require photo ID to vote, tensions are particularly high between Secretary of State Scott Gessler and his critics. (And you thought it couldn’t get more intense).

One of the accusations floating around the Twitterverse is that Gessler recently said his office has removed more than 400 non-citizens from Colorado’s voter rolls – a number that has more than doubled in the past year.

So: Is it true? And if so, is there anything wrong with it?

Rich Coolidge, public information officer for the Secretary of State, confirmed this morning that as of today, 416 non-citizens have been taken off the rolls since 2008. That’s up from 212 early last year, Coolidge said.

But it’s not as simple as Gessler (or anyone else in his office) unilaterally removing names, Coolidge said.

The Denver police officer who stopped state Rep. Laura Bradford last month estimated her blood-alcohol content at “roughly” 0.20 — more than twice the legal level for driving drunk.

Officer Brian Klaus, in an an internal affairs report, also said Bradford initially told him she drank only one glass of wine, but after he informed her what he thought her BAC was she said “three glasses of wine.” He also said she failed each roadside sobriety test.

But the Mesa County Republican was not officially tested or arrested that night because of a Denver police interpretation of a clause in the state constitution preventing the arrest of a lawmaker during session.

“I told her how lucky she was to not be going to jail for a DUI. She stated to me she did not want special treatment and I explained to her I had no choice,” Klaus wrote in his report.

Red light, no. A Senate committee shot down a bill to ban red light cameras despite arguments the cameras don’t improve public safety and are hated by citizens. The Denver Post.

Yes sir, that’s my baby bill. A House panel rejected a bill that would have banned some products that contain a chemical that has raised concerns about its health effects on babies. The Pueblo Chieftain.

Floor fight. Tempers flared over a Democratic credit-score bill during a vote in the Senate. The Spot.

She wore an itsy bitsy … Teens in Colorado won’t have to worry about losing the right to hit indoor tanning beds as often as they like without collecting state-mandated permission slips after a lawmaker backed off her plan to require parental notification. 7News.

This just in, Dems job bill passes: The State of Colorado would double its funding for Small Business Development Centers across the state under a Democrat bill that survived a House committee approved. Denver Business Journal

I’ve got a stash in my bathroom closet. Selling or manufacturing synthetic drugs known as “bath salts” would be illegal in Colorado under a bill that received committee approval. The Associated Press via CBS4.

Wanted, a bill that passes. A Colorado House committee killed a bill that would have banned employers from advertising that they would not accept job applications from unemployed people. Denver Business Journal.

Right to fight over life. A bill to allow prosecutions against criminals who harm unborn children advanced, despite the objections of Democrats who suggested it would open the door to prosecuting women who have abortions. The Gazette

Federico Pena will again be a national co-chair for the president's re-election campaign.

WASHINGTON — Former Denver Mayor Federico Peña will be one of roughly 20 national co-chairs for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign — a role he played in 2008 and throughout the presidency.

Sen. Michael Bennet is also a national co-chair, Obama For America officials said Wednesday.

Peña said in an interview that the job means he will travel the west talking about the president’s health care reform law and improving the economy. Peña says he’ll draw stark contrasts between the GOP candidate — Romney? Santorum? — and the president.

“We’ve had 23 months of consistent job growth, we have 3.7 million Americans back to work,” Peña said. “We still have a long way to go, but his (Obama’s) is a strategy that is working and I look forward to comparing that to the strateiges of Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum.”

Peña said he didn’t always think the independent votes were swinging left, but he thinks an improved economy coupled with a bruising GOP primary has helped bring unaffiliated voters back to Obama.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.